When he was a lad, Troy Greer’s grandfather told him something that he has not forgotten: “Never go to a hospital that is not expanding.”

Greer is putting that message into practice as he heads into his fourth year as CEO of Lovelace Westside Hospital.

The 95-bed complex, built in 1983, is undergoing a $4.5 million renovation that will turn 9,300 square feet of it into an obstetrics unit with nine private labor/delivery/recovery and post partum rooms.

The hospital’s lobby and facade are getting a $3.1 million facelift, and starting in November, the hospital will bring pulmonology and critical care services to the Westside. It soon will also start a weight loss management program with surgical services.

“I’ve never forgotten what my grandfather told me,” says Greer as he explains his goals for the Westside hospital: “Our main mission is to provide exceptional care to all of our guests and visitors. It is a pledge that we live by every day.”

Greer is a bit modest when he speaks of his goals. Hospital board member Nick Chavez says Greer is out to make Westside “better than any other hospital. He strives for excellence, he cares about his staff and he cares about his patients. He has vision, and every time we talk, he tells me how he is working to make the hospital better.”

The 38-year-old Greer has moved quickly to help remake the hospital at Golf Course Road and McMahon NW, and engage its staff in the planning process. As a kid, he learned to dive headfirst into relationships and situations.

“I was a military dependent, and I lived in 11 different places before I was 14,” Greer says. “It taught me the impact of forming relationships quickly. It taught me to learn quickly to accommodate whatever environment you are in, and it taught me respect for different cultures and to quickly adapt to different environments.

“Moving so much was both intimidating and exciting, but what it instilled in me is a true sense of family. I learned early on to have a heavy reliance on my immediate family, and also that sometimes, your greatest moments of triumph come from your greatest moments of fear. I’ve lived in Michigan, Tennessee, Kansas, Maryland, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, Texas and now, New Mexico.

“Health care is nothing more than the exchange of information based on relationships with employees and patients. We want those relationships to be as positive as they can.”

Greer has been in the health care field for 15 years. He came to New Mexico from the Houston area, where he served as the chief operating officer and chief ethics and compliance officer at the Women’s Hospital of Texas in Houston, and as CEO of Pearland Regional Medical Center in Pearland, Texas.

At the 550-bed Women’s Hospital, he oversaw 18 departments and an institution that had $186 million in annual revenue.

Greer has a philosophy about every job he’s had or will have:

“I want to leave an organization stronger than it was when I came in. That’s how I judge success. Is the organization better culturally than when I arrived?”

By “culture,” especially at a hospital, Greer means “a feeling of camaraderie and teamwork that exists among the individuals to benefit the care of patients. We want everything we do to benefit our patients.”

Greer was interested in medicine from an early age. At one time he wanted to be a physician, but changed his mind when he got interested in the business side of medicine while a student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

“I started out in the natural sciences and had a double major in biology and chemistry,” he explains, “and then I just transitioned over to business.”

Greer earned his master’s degrees in business and health care administration at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

So what does a hospital administrator do?

“You’re part social psychologist and part strategic planner,” Greer says. “The vast majority of my time is spent trying to understand how to provide better service. Sometimes my day is sitting and looking to see what other people’s schedules are and what they’re doing, and sometimes it’s working to put together a multimillion- dollar renovation and construction project. But what I truly enjoy is the interaction with people.”

“He wants to push the hospital to be the best, not only in the Lovelace system, but to be the best hospital in the state of New Mexico,” Butler says. “He wants to become the premier hospital in the state.”

Butler thinks Greer was “molded for leadership” at a young age.

“He has so many ideas that his staff can’t keep up with him. He moves fast, and it really helps set the stage for a hospital that will some day be recognized as one of the best in New Mexico,” Butler adds.

Greer used to ski, but now he snowboards. He hits the slopes 30 times a year with his wife Mandy and their two children.

All those moves as a youngster made Greer an advocate of change.

“I’m not afraid of change,” he says. “In many ways, I’m much more comfortable with change because I’m so used to it.”